“Women’s and house work” - an investigation into the domestic division of labour in the home

GCSE: Geography

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I have chosen to investigate this topic because the domestic work and division of labour between men and women was recently a big issue and has changed as the conjugal roles have changed in the society.

Until the middle of the 20th century there was a clear division of labour between the sexes. The man’s role was to go out to work and provide for the family (breadwinner), the women’s role was to be a housewife and mother, looking after home and family. Today most women go out to work, yet they are expected to do most of the house work, this means they carry out a double burden.

Functionalists Wilmot and Young (1973) argued that industrialisation led to joint conjugal roles in the nuclear family

ANNE OAKELY (1974) was highly critical of the methodology of Wilmot and young. Oakley’s research found out that it was pretty rare for men to do a lot of house work.

Willmont and young – in the 1970s young and willmott believed they had evidence of a new type of sharing of domestic roles that was more equal


Stephen Edgell (1980) found that wives still depended on their husbands on decision making,
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